« Violet Watts born 1912. | Main | A Sad Childhood Memory. »
Tess Larmour (born 7th January 1923).
She spent the Second World War Years in the ATS.
Tess remembers sad and happy times.
When the German Coke works employed 200 people and the acid plant and the tar beds were another source of employment.
Tthe miners in Middle Row, back -to -back houses with six shared toilets at the end of each street.
The deputies living in Post Office Row and these houses had "proper" toilets.
The pit communities were very close, everyone helping each other.
How the miners’ lives revolved around the pit, the chapel and their allotments.
How the women’s lives revolved around the pit, the children and their home, they had to rise early for washing, cleaning, cooking. They led very busy lives but always made time to tidy up and to get washed and changed before their man came home from the pit. They had to have the hot water ready for the bath at the end of the shift. In an evening the women’s entertainment was to sit outside in the street and chat to their neighbours.
The fear when the pit siren sounded and everyone gathering at the pit yard for news of casualties. The ambulance was kept at the Hobson Colliery and unfortunately was frequently in use.
1949 she remembers the wages robbery at Marley Hill pit.
Social life revolving around the Primitive and Wesleyan Chapels.
One of her earliest chapel memories is learning and saying her “piece�? for the Easter Anniversary.
Making mistletoes with holly and mistletoe at Christmas, the smell of the fruit and vegetables at Harvest Festivals and the yearly chapel trip.
The yearly school trip on the first Friday in July when the children and their mothers filled two buses.
Polly Winger who had a shop in her front room selling sweets and pop who, when she was ninety had a boy friend who was ninety three and used to visit her in his pony and trap.
Nellie Ralph selling fish and chips from her scullery on Fridays that she had cooked in her set-pot. She still managed to have a wash as good as anyone else.
Tess moved from Marley Hill when she was eight years old.